1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an outer cutter assembly for an electric shaver, and more particularly to an arrangement of a comb formed interiorly along the perforated peripheral portion of an outer shearing foil of the cutter assembly for reinforcing that perforated portion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Such comb is known to be included in an outer cutter assembly for reinforcing a perforated peripheral portion, more precisely webs which separate the adjacent ones of a series of hair entrance slots formed along the periphery of an outer shearing foil for feeding long or fuzzy hairs into shearing relationship with a cooperative inner cutter. A typical prior outer cutter assembly including the comb is disclosed in Japanese early publication (KOKAI) No. 58-157461 of a Utility Model application, in which the comb is integrally formed with a plastic base frame on which the outer shearing foil is mounted by pressing. However, the provision of the comb integral with the base frame may frequently lead an undesirable formation of a gap between the comb and the outer shearing foil, the result of which poses a problem in that hairs are sometimes caught in the gap causing them to be pulled during the shaving operation to thereby irritate the skin of the user. In addition to that clipped hair ends gradually accumulated and consolidated in the gap will act as a wedge to deform the curved surface of the outer shearing foil to such an extent as to lower shearing efficiency.
Such a gap is indispensable in the above structure from the fact that there normally exists variance in the sizes of the outer shearing foil and the comb integral with the base frame and that an attempt to eliminate the gap by providing the comb of a slightly greater size to compensate for that variance will certainly result in an excess pressure required to be applied to the outer shearing foil at the time of assembling the outer shearing foil on the base frame to thereby disadvantageously deform the outer shearing foil to an extent that efficient shearing is no longer to be expected.